Becoming Family
by TulipofMay
Summary: One-shot. Ginny has to tell Draco something very important. Future-AU, Fluff. Just a random plot-bunny that attacked me at 2pm. Please review!


**I do not own Harry Potter. If I did Draco/Ginny would be canon! :-)**

She found him in his study staring blankly into the crackling fire holding a glass of firewhisky and leaning on the mantle piece for support.

"Draco?", she whispered cautiously.

He didn't react for what seemed like an eternity and she contemplated leaving, as he either had not heard her or didn't want to respond. When she finally had made the decision to leave quietly, he sighed and turned around.

"Today was her birthday...", he said, his voice hoarse and barely audible.

Ginny felt her muscles tightening, her breath catching in her throat she spoke again, unsure about whether she should inquire further, uncertain whether she really wanted to know the answer. If he would answer.

"Who?", she choked out, knowing that she had crossed a line.

"My aunt Bellatrix. Look, I know she was nothing but a monster to you, but...",

he trailed off and Ginny knew that he thought about, what she would think of him, if he continued talking about his aunt. She herself wasn't sure, that woman had tried to kill her! That piece of Death Eater scum had tortured Neville's parents to insanity and still, she had been his aunt. So, no matter how difficult it was to grasp Draco's feelings toward Bellatrix Lestrange surely were very different.

She kept silent expectantly, watching his mouth as he parted his lips to speak again.

"But I didn't know her that way for the biggest part of my life. To me she was 'Auntie Bella', who gave me candy, taught me how to use a wand and gave me piggy back rides through Malfoy Manor. She made me laugh, she listened to me and took me serious. My parents were always so distant. Of course they loved me – and love me still, but my mother was always such a Lady and my father was determined to make a 'man' out of me. They weren't the ones to show their feelings. Hugging or kissing me was simply out of the question for them. My aunt used to do all these things, because she always was less controlled than my mother. She didn't restrain herself..."

His words made her feel uneasy, she couldn't fathom that this vile woman had had another, a softer side. She couldn't understand that someone who clearly felt love for her family could rob others of theirs. He had stopped talking and though she was relieved about not having to think about someone she hated any longer, she felt morbid curiosity rise out of the swirl of emotions in her mind.

She inched closer to Draco, wishing to comfort him without scaring him. She knew that he could shut off any second now. He still wasn't comfortable with letting down his guard, letting others see into his soul. These occasions was rare and his openness was fragile. It felt like they were in a soap bubble together, any wrong movement would burst it and he would storm off.

She opened her mouth to speak, searching for the right words, but to her astonishment he carried on without being probed.

"She changed though, when I got older. I never understood why, though I overheard her and my mother talking in mother's drawing room once when I was little.

Aunt Bella sat there, crying, talking to my mother with a sadness in her voice I had never heard. I think, I was about six then. Nobody noticed me and so I just stood in the doorway, listening to them.

"_I lost h-him! A-again!" Bellatrix cried, rather unladylike into the shoulder of her younger sister. Narcissa held her rather awkwardly, patting her back, careful not to stain her expensive, white silk robes with the tears of her sister._

"_Maybe it was a girl?" The blonde witch said, trying to be soothing, but clearly failing._

"_N-n-no! It was a b-boy!" the distraught brunette with replied, her face red, her hooded brown eyes bloodshot._

_Draco felt sorry for his beloved aunt, not really grasping how awful the situation was for his aunt, still he understood that she was sad, because she had lost a baby. However strange that seemed to 6-year-old Draco, because he didn't quite understand how you could 'lose' a child, they were noisy! And besides he had never seen his aunt with a child!? However he knew that losing something was bad, because when he was four he had lost his stuffed dragon and cried for a week._

_His aunt was still sobbing into his mother's shoulder, her body rocking violently, but he felt that he had heard enough and so he turned around and went into his room, his heart feeling heavy in his chest._

"A few years later, before I went to Hogwarts it happened again and I began to truly understand, why my aunt was crying. She and my uncle had tried for years to have a baby. They desperately wanted children, but my aunt always lost the children a few weeks or even months into the pregnancy. I don't know how often they tried, but the first time it happened I wasn't even born. They went to every healer and midwitch they could find, took every potion, tried every spell and still nothing ever helped. When I came back from Hogwarts for the first time, I didn't recognise her. My 'Auntie Bella' had turned into a bitter, malicious old hag, but I loved her no less. I think she had finally crumbled under all the sadness and despair."

Ginny felt a lump in her throat, her emotions wrestling. One part of her thought that someone as awful as Bellatrix Lestrange deserved such a fate, the other part pitied her and wondered whether Bellatrix would have turned out to be a more decent, less cruel version of herself, if she had become a mother. Wasn't motherhood supposed to soften women?

"That's awful.", she said simply.

She didn't have any more words, she didn't know how to respond. Feeling pity for this woman was as alien to her as feeling pity for Lord Voldemort and it just didn't feel right. Still it was there. Not trusting her voice, she reached out her hand to Draco, who had sat down on the green leather sofa in front of the fire. He took it and she seated herself as well, snuggling up to him. The warmth of his skin under his grey cashmere sweater, the smell of his cologne and his firm grip on her hand gave her security and so she found it in herself to say something more.

"Look, to me she was horrible and I hate her.", she felt his body tighten, "But she was your aunt. Of course you loved her and of course you miss her. That's what family is about. No matter what someone who belongs to my family does, I will always love them."

She felt him relaxing, as he put his arm around her pulling her closer to him.

He softly kissed her on the head, inhaling the scent of her hair, as he felt the tightness in his chest evaporate. It felt good to know that she accepted him, that she did not think of him as a monster, because he loved his family. Somehow he even had a faint suspicion that she loved him more for it.

With her head on his shoulder, listening to his steady heartbeat, she remembered that she had come to his study for a reason. She felt anxious about telling him, however there was no way around it. So she just tried to force out the words she needed to say.

"Well, uh... Draco? I... I hope you aren't drunk?", she heard herself say.

These were not the words she wanted to say. Why had she said that? Stupid brain! What a chicken she was. Still she waited for him to reply, trying not to babble away.

"I am quite sober, though I appreciate your concern. Thank you, love!"

She knew he was angry, but she didn't think about his feelings any longer. He still sat beside her, even though he had untangled his hand from hers. It didn't matter, she needed to say it. Ginny took a deep breath, as if she wanted to dive into the ice cold ocean – which it surely felt like – and blurted out,

"Speaking of family, Draco I'm pregnant!"

She said it so fast, the word blurred into each other. He apparently still got the message, as he was on is feet in no time a joyful, yet dumbfounded expression on his pale face. Ginny thought he looked hilarious. All the tension rushed out of her and was replaced by pure happiness as Draco swept her into his arms and kissed her, swirling her through the room.

"It seems, Ginevra Weasley, that you now have no choice but marrying me!", he stated matter-of-factly, looking infuriatingly smug.

"Is that you idea of a proposal, you complete and utter prat?, she laughed at him.

He said nothing. Instead he made quite the show of going down on one knee and taking her left hand. When he spoke however, his voice bore no trace of sarcasm or irony.

"Ginevra Molly Weasley, I love you. You complete me. I love everything about you and I wish to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?"

Tears of joy glistening in her eyes she bent down to kiss him and breathed, "Yes!"

"How strange life is, one moment sadness overwhelms you and you feel like drowning in it and the next second you're on top of the world", she mused as they rose to their feet again.

Both felt that, no matter how the past had scarred them, no matter how it still hurt, no matter what challenges awaited them, together they could do it, because they now were not just a couple any more, but a family.

A/N: I hope you liked it and please, please review. If you did like it, I would be so pleased if you let me know, if you didn#t please tell me, what I can improve! :-)


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